Teresa Au chats with author, speaker, and entrepreneur Michael Ventura about what empathy really is and how it can help your design work and your business. Michael describes applied empathy–the idea that empathy isn’t just putting yourself in someone else’s shoes–it’s about better understanding what it’s like to be someone else in their own shoes. They also discuss how car designers rely on somatic empathy, strategies for time-strapped solopreneurs, and an easy way to shake up your video meetings.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How Michael’s brand and strategy used empathy to improve their work
• Somatic empathy as a way to understand your clients’ physical experiences
• The importance of reflecting on the impact of your work
• A quick trick for learning about the people you meet
• Why working more hours is not working better
• A tool for comparing competing priorities
• How empathy and self-knowledge can help you find your purpose

Remix a template created by Michael Ventura in Adobe Express: https://adobe.ly/ITM-Michael

Michael Ventura founded the strategy and design consultancy Sub Rosa, where he advised clients such as ACLU, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, Nike, The United Nations and the Obama-Biden Administration. His book, Applied Empathy (Simon & Schuster 2018) explores the intersectionality of business and personal development through the practice of empathy for the self, and for others. Michael has served as a board member and advisor to organizations including Behance, The Burning Man Project, The Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and the United Nations' affiliated Tribal Link Foundation. He is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and the United States Military Academy at West Point. An ardent steward of personal and professional development, Michael is frequently engaged as an advisor to individuals, leaders, teams, and corporate boards at moments of transformation and change.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe, where she focuses on empowering creatives and students via workshops, panels, and podcasts. On creating In the Making, Teresa says “I knew I wanted to amplify the incredible personal stories of the talented and unique humans I’ve been meeting online and at our Create Now events across the world.”

In the Making is made possible by Adobe Express, the all-in-one content creation app included in your Creative Cloud membership.

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. Want to leave us a voicemail? Go to https://www.speakpipe.com/inthemaking

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more.

Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

In the Making kicks off season two with Teresa Au interviewing Vanessa Rivera of The Life of AIVAX about her whimsical Photoshop art and how she balances a time-consuming creative career with a family as a working mom. Vanessa talks about creative tools that save her time in her work, how she and her family left their home to travel in Europe for an extended period, how to set limits on her work life, and how to find joy and connection in a lonely world as a creative.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How to manage burnout
• Balancing creative work and a family
• How to make it work to sell everything and travel abroad
• AI as a timesaver for creatives
• Finding joy and community
• How to combat isolation
• What the Adobe MAX community means to Vanessa
• Work/life balance
• Childrens’ book illustration
• Small steps on the way to a big dream

Remix a fun template from Vanessa on Adobe Express: https://adobe.ly/ITM-Vanessa

Vanessa Rivera (Life of AIVAX) is a digital artist who creates nostalgic, magical images of her kids. Her work is whimsical and joyful, and she shares her style and process through Photoshop tutorials, custom assets, and brush library at Life of AIVAX.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe, where she focuses on empowering creatives and students via workshops, panels, and podcasts. On creating In the Making, Teresa says “I knew I wanted to amplify the incredible personal stories of the talented and unique humans I’ve been meeting online and at our Create Now events across the world.”

In the Making is made possible by Adobe Express, the all-in-one content creation app included in your Creative Cloud membership.

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. Want to leave us a voicemail? Go to https://www.speakpipe.com/inthemaking

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

Season 2 is almost here! In the Making explores the challenges and rewards of working in the creator economy. Subscribe now to join host Teresa Au as she talks to creatives, soloprenuers, and experts to find out how they thrive at work–and how you can, too!

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe, where she focuses on empowering creatives and students via workshops, panels, and podcasts. On creating In the Making, Teresa says “I knew I wanted to amplify the incredible personal stories of the talented and unique humans I’ve been meeting online and at our Create Now events across the world.”

In the Making is made possible by Adobe Express, the all-in-one content creation app included in your Creative Cloud membership.

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. Want to leave us a voicemail? Go to https://www.speakpipe.com/inthemaking

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more.

Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

Inspiration is on tap as Teresa Au speaks to graphic designer, entrepreneur, and author Aaron Draplin. Known as much for his warm and direct personality as for his signature thick lines design style and ample use of Pantone Orange 21, Aaron is beloved by designers everywhere. Aaron shares lessons gleaned from his midwestern upbringing, nearly 20 years in business on his own, and creating his Field Notes and DDC branded merchandise.

We want to hear from YOU, our listeners, so we put together a brief survey as we look ahead to season two: https://adobe.ly/podcastsurvey

To thank you for your feedback, we’re giving away two 12-month memberships to Creative Cloud (valued at $659.88 each). Enter for your chance to win one of the two Creative Cloud licenses by completing the survey form from November 7 at 9pm PT to November 30 at 5pm PT. Winners will be drawn at random and notified at December 1 at noon PT. Valid one license per winner. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years or older to enter. Please see Terms and Conditions on our website for full details. https://adobe.ly/podcastsurvey

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• What Aaron wishes he knew when he went out on his own
• Be professional on your way out of a role or project
• Why you should take every job that comes your way
• Lessons learned from challenging jobs and people
• How to control your own time
• The value of keeping your word
• What you can learn from your clients that can help you in your own business
• Use merchandise to make your business look as big–or as small–as you wish
• How Aaron started the Field Notes brand
• When it’s time to bring in a team
• Is passive income actually passive?
• Taking on big jobs allows Aaron to do little things to help his friend and family
• Corporate clients don’t have to mean endless meetings and emails
• A big client can also be a passion job
• Give clients what they need, not necessarily what they think they want
• Which design students make the best audiences
• What Aaron learned from his Dad
• The importance of appreciating the people who help you get your work done
• Aaron’s dream gig
• Aaron’s list of words for 2024

Aaron Draplin is founder of the Draplin Design Co. a shop specializing in Print, Identity and Illustration.  He co-created Field Notes brand with Jim Coudal, and their memo books are sold the world over. He is the author of eight Skillshare classes, and the book Pretty Much Everything . His DDC Merch line is a cult favorite, featuring 300+ products. You’ll find Aaron in his backyard studio in Portland, Oregon, or crossing the US in his orange van, putting on “speaking fiascos” for audiences ranging from Adobe MAX to vocational school students.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement and driving customer empathy at Adobe. 

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. 

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance. 

What’s it like to pay off $50,000 in debt, ditch your 9-to-5, travel the world, create educational content, and build community in the process? Teresa Au speaks to Financial Hype Woman and content creator Berna Anat about how she did all that and how she’s planning for tomorrow. Berna also shares how our emotional relationship with money impacts our decisions, her strategies for budgeting, saving and retirement, and what to do when the creator life doesn’t love you back.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Learn why Berna told the world she was $50,000 in debt
• Shame about debt
• Why Berna decided in 6th grade not to be self-conscious
• Berna’s background as a child of immigrants
• Why DMs are like a secret
• The age at which our emotional relationship to money is formed
• Ways in which we indirectly understand our family’s finances
• The paradox of the Frugal-Flex mentality
• Why Berna wanted to write a fun book about money
• How your emotional relationship to money shapes your behavior today
• Financial basics vs social media buzz
• Berna’s leap to becoming a solopreneur, via Zanzibar 
• How Berna found her sweet spot as a content creator
• Finances as a means of activism and empowerment
• Budgeting on an unpredictable income 
• Retirement planning  for creators
• Who’s on your money squad?
• Getting the most out of working with an accountant
• What an agent can do for you
• A fun trick to help you negotiate better deals
• The traditional dead season for brand partnerships
• Financial worry and the creator life
• Recent changes in the creator economy
• Measuring your impact rather than your income
• Why it’s so important to celebrate your money wins
• Berna’s One Word for 2023

Berna Anat is an author, producer, Rich Auntie in Training, and award-winning Financial Hype Woman, which is her made-up way of saying she creates financial education media that lives at @HeyBerna all over the Internet. After slaying her $50,000 debt, she saved up to quit her 9-to-5 and has been traveling the world trying to make money fun again ever since. Berna’s 2023 debut book MONEY OUT LOUD: All the Financial Stuff No One Taught Us, is a Bookshop.org Bestseller and has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement and driving customer empathy at Adobe. Her career spans diverse creative fields, primarily in New York’s fashion industry, as well as architecture firms, and now Silicon Valley tech companies. She has always prized working with distinctive design and the interesting people behind it–from designer Elie Tahari to start-up CEOs. 

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. In the Making is brought you by Adobe Express and Adobe Creative Cloud. 

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance. 

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. 

Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

Whether it’s leaving the comfort of a steady paycheck to pursue photography, or checking out the possibilities of AI, sometimes the greatest rewards lie on the other side of fear. Teresa Au speaks to photographer Tobi Shinobi about his first career in law, making a name on Instagram, and why drone photography is so peaceful. Tobi also shares his perspectives as a brand strategist, advising the same types of corporate clients who hire him for their shoots.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Learn about Tobi’s upbringing in East London
• Why practicing law and photography are so opposite
• The importance of being exposed to the arts
• How the shift from law to photography was both a jump and a push
• There’s no time for fear when you’re so busy
• Growth and progress are not linear
• Professionalism as a means to creativity
• Listening to clients
• What Tobi loves about photography
• The best way to shake a bad mood
• How the AI revolution is like the Industrial Revolution
• The difference between fear and respect
• Controversy over AI use in photography
• The AI we’re already using without realizing it
• Tobi’s “real life” Photoshop technique
• What makes you more or less of an artist?
• The thing that makes both AI and photography exciting
• How creative strategy is like storytelling
• Why storytelling is so essential to human beings
• Are you cut out for working with brands?
• Brand safety and authenticity
• Tobi’s one word for 2023 (and 2024)

Tobi Shinobi is an award winning photographer and videographer based between London and Chicago who was just named one of Adobe’s 2023 Firefly Creators to Watch. His work encompasses high profile events, product photography, architecture, and interviews. An early Instagram star, he has over 200,000 followers across online platforms. Tobi finds beauty in often gritty urban landscapes and his distinctive focus on detail, perspective, geometry, and symmetry allows for a new appreciation of architecture. 

Tobi provides social strategies for an array of digital content from video to photos for brands. He regularly works for clients such as Audi, Adidas, Coca-Cola and Samsung. He is an alumnus Adobe Lightroom Ambassador and Sony Global Imaging Ambassador. His first solo photo book, Equilibrium, is available now, and he starred in the award-winning documentary, I Take Photos. He is currently showing work in Brazil and in Chicago, some of which was recently selected as part of the 2023 MvVO awards. 

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe. Her career spans diverse creative fields, primarily in New York’s fashion industry, as well as architecture firms, and now Silicon Valley tech companies. She has always prized working with distinctive design and the interesting people behind it–from designer Elie Tahari to start-up CEOs. 

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. In the Making is brought you by Adobe Express and Adobe Creative Cloud. 

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance. 

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

When is it better to keep your side hustle on the side, and stay with your day job? Teresa Au speaks to UX designer-by-day, illustrator-by-night Miranda Wong about the pros and cons of working a second shift in a creative field. Miranda shares her strategies for time management, why her illustration business makes her better at her day job, and the hidden rewards of meeting customers and vendors in real life. 

What you’ll hear on this episode:

• How Miranda’s creative process has changed since graduating college and starting a job
• Her thoughts on how to be creative in a time crunch
• Use your body to inspire your creativity–take a walk or dance to a song
• The interplay between UX design and having your own business
• Miranda’s new confidence at her day job
• A professional breakthrough from speaking her mind
• Gaining support at work from early-career colleagues
• The benefits of finding a mentor
• Why time management is also about attitude
• Creativity flows at night
• Prioritizing self care and rest
• Why she started Mando’s Bake Shop in the pandemic
• Giving to worthy causes is part of the business, not an afterthought
• Responding to Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate
• Should Miranda take Mando’s Bake Shop full-time?
• Thoughts on future expansion and employee number one: her mom
• Breaking down creative vs. administrative time
• How Miranda learns from her vendors by visiting them in person
• Posting on social shouldn’t be a chore
• The importance of creating a consistent brand online
• What are the most successful posts?
• Choosing self-expression over what’s popular with your followers
• The popularity of fan art
• Inspiration from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Tiffany Tan aka Apple Cheeks
• Work/life balance? Be sure to know your purpose
• Do your co-workers know about your side hustle?
• What success looks like
• Miranda’s One Word for 2023

Miranda Wong is a Chinese-Filipino American illustrator and designer based in California. Her illustrations are inspired by everyday life, memories, food and desserts, or anything that celebrates her Asian background and culture. She sells illustrated stationery and decor products online at Mando's Bake Shop.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe. Her career spans diverse creative fields, primarily in New York’s fashion industry, as well as architecture firms, and now Silicon Valley tech companies. She has always prized working with distinctive design and the interesting people behind it–from designer Elie Tahari to start-up CEOs. 

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. In the Making is brought you by Adobe Express and Adobe Creative Cloud. 

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance. 

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud